Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy and Orthoparadoxy

Nothing guarantees readers or gets people excited like large theological terms. Hope your blood is going already! This past spring at the 2007 Wheaton College Theological Conference, Tony Jones, the national director of the Emergent Village presented a paper called, ““Whence Hermeneutic Authority?””. Tony’s appearance there caused a bit of unneeded stir, but apart from the politics and silliness of his presence at the conference I have spent some time the last couple of weeks digging through his paper. My buddy Dave and I have had an ongoing email and phone conversation about it as well, because the ideas he brings up are important to consider, especially in the context of what they mean for the emerging church. So let me summarize a bit of a far more in depth conversation and hopefully you will engage with it yourself.

Jones’ paper is all about the nature of orthodoxy, how it is created, how we use it, and just what it’s nature is. He says, “Orthodoxy is a happening, an occurrence, not a state of being
or a state of mind or a state-ment.”At the heart of his paper is a belief that orthodoxy is not a statement of beliefs that we use to evaluate people, instead it is what happens as the church lives out their faith, as we become the incarnation of our faith as Jesus came to demonstrate true faith and understanding of the true God through his own incarnation. (At least that is my understanding of his paper. I am sure someone else can summarize it better.)

To put it in another way, it seems to be a reiteration of the statement that faith is something you do not something you believe. Jones is emphasizing the connection between true orthodoxy and orthopraxy, what we believe and what we do. They can not be disconnected. The real debate about his ideas is whether or not there is a set criteria of beliefs that make up the orthodoxy of our orthopraxy. Jones believes that we never achieve real orthodoxy because our theology, our understanding of God is never perfect. We live our faith out in an effort to understand God, acknowledging our inability to ever fully understand God. He seems to believe that orthodoxy can’t be a statement, it is a life we live.

Jones has some great ideas in his paper but seems to go too far. The problem with his questioning of orthodoxy is that at the center of our faith there are a set of beliefs that haven’t been called into question and aren’t rooted in context or culture. These beliefs are a litmus test for our faithfulness, but only so much as they empower and motivate us to faithful living.

I encourage you to read the paper, (2007-wheaton-theology-conference-tony-jones.pdf) it is though provoking. I really like Tony, I have had the chance to meet him a couple of times at emergent events and I think he is a gifted theologian. He has taken some hard shots from critics, and much of it has nothing to do with his work. Check out his blog, it is good. Maybe next week Dave and I will have a podcast discussion about the paper and share some more thoughts about it.

If you made it through all of that good for you. If not, the next one will be shorter. Peace.